


No Shiny Happy People

by tinglingworld



Series: tumblr prompts [5]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Episode: s04e04 Unruhe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:35:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26338087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinglingworld/pseuds/tinglingworld
Summary: Post Episode for "Unruhe", prompt "I'm scared"
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Series: tumblr prompts [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1766299
Kudos: 37





	No Shiny Happy People

The TV was still playing when Mulder was jerked awake by the sound of his phone ringing. He'd dozed off, numbed by the noise of some deep sea documentary he didn't care for. Scrambling to get up from the couch and to the phone on his desk before it stopped ringing, the blanket he'd draped over himself fell to the coffee table and knocked over a half empty glass of orange juice. He was still cursing when his shin met the edge of the coffee table and pain seared up his leg.  
"Damn it!" he breathed, rubbing at his shin while reaching for the phone with his other hand, plopping down on the desk chair.   
He was still looking at the mess he'd made of his coffee table when Scully's expected voice sounded in his ear.

"Mulder?"  
He stopped rubbing his aching shin and sat up when he heard the shakiness in her voice.   
"Yeah. I'm here," he replied, almost holding his breath, awaiting her response.  
"I-" there was a rustling and Mulder imagined her messing with the comforter as she sat against the headboard of her bed, "it's 2.30AM I shouldn't have called. I'm sorry. Go back to bed, Mulder."  
"No!" he blurted out, trying to stop her from hanging up, "It's okay, I wasn't in bed anyway."  
"Only because you always sleep on your couch."  
He grinned slightly at this very Scully remark.  
"Well, it remains that I wasn't in bed."   
He heard her huff before silence stretched between them until eventually he dared to ask: "Scully, are you okay?"  
He didn't even need to listen intently, the hitch in her breath was unmistakable and immediately he felt his own throat tightening and his heartbeat quickening.   
He wanted to blurt out all sorts of things, ask if she was safe, if something had happened, if he needed to come in guns blazing. He had nerve enough though to realize that she very probably wasn't in mortal danger. Regrettably he'd heard mortal danger on the phone one too many times and this wasn't it. So he bit his lip and kept breathing and listened. 

There'd been a few of these types of phone calls over the years, more so over the past couple of months. She'd call him in the middle of the night and sometimes they'd talk cases and sometimes they'd talk bureau gossip and others she'd hang up again almost immediately after asking him some irrelevant question he knew she knew the answer to. The last type usually happened after especially tough or draining cases; cases when, after saying goodbye in the car, he'd sit and breathe and wish to be able to just get out of the car too and follow her inside her cozy, warm apartment, locking out the world for just a moment longer by simply being together.   
But they weren't those kind of people. They didn't have that kind of relationship. Dana Scully might be his favorite person on the entire planet but they weren't happy, bubbly people and they didn't talk out their feelings when a case hit especially close to home. Which this one most definitely had. 

When the line continued to remain silent he cautiously decided to speak again.   
"Couldn't sleep?"   
That maybe wasn't what he really wanted to ask but it was just about the most direct thing he dared to.   
He heard something that sounded a lot like a sniffle and his heart stumbled at the sound as he waited for a response.   
"Yeah. Yeah something like that."  
Her voice was still off. Too rough, too raspy. She'd been crying, he was sure. For the millionth time he wished they were different people. Healthy and talkative. People who were able to speak their fears out loud and let themselves receive comfort. They weren't, but hearing another sniffle from Scully, he decided he wasn't quite yet done trying.   
"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked quietly, clutching the phone a little tighter.   
This time her response was unmistakably a sob and he felt his knuckles turn white with their hold on the receiver.   
"Scully," he breathed, not knowing what to say, what to do, wishing desperately to be able to reach through the phone and hold her safe in his arms.   
"I'm scared," she eventually whispered and Mulder swore his heart skipped a beat. She continued before he had to come up with a reply:  
"I fall asleep and all I see his his face. Schnauz. I-" she paused again before adding "I'm scared to fall back asleep."

Mulder's chest was constricting almost painfully at the sound of her voice and the meaning of her words. He couldn't come up with an answer, as hard as he tried. They didn't do this--didn't do verbal honesty.  
He could hear more sheet rustling and sensed that if he didn't say anything soon, she'd hang up so finally he said the one thing he could offer:  
"Do you want me to come over?"   
Because they didn't talk very well but his world always felt less dark when Scully was close and he could only hope that maybe his presence did the same for her. He'd come to learn that it just might. 

There was more silence and Mulder thought that maybe he'd crossed a line, maybe had said the wrong thing after all. But then she whispered "Yes." and the pressure in his chest eased slightly and he nodded and promised to be there as fast as possible. 

Leaving in his shabby washed out shirt and sweatpants, the spilled orange juice drying into a mess on old files and his couch blanket, he was at her door half an hour later.   
She opened him in her red bathrobe and looked up at him with an expression so vulnerable he felt too many emotions racing through him to think clearly.   
He wordlessly stepped close and wrapped his arms around her tightly. He felt her bring her arms around his waist and rest her head against his chest.   
Maybe they weren't happy, bubbly people but they were people who called each other in the middle of the night and drove halfway across town and he decided that was enough. 


End file.
